Where the Halling Valley River Lies, Carl Halling [urban books to read txt] 📗

somewhat convoluted explanation of how the various strands of “Where the Halling Valley River Lies” came to be concocted.

And which we begin with the leading text from Book One, “Leitmotifs from an English Pastorale”, whose nucleus came about some years ago when I attempted to write a piece about the pastoral tradition within English music, before realising I’d set myself a monumental task. But I rambled on regardless, only to lose what I’d written so far when my computer crashed beyond all hope of repair. As for reasons best known to myself, I’d not ensured its continuing existence by way of a duplicate.
I think I then attempted a re-write with the singer-songwriter Nick Drake as its main feature, which I enhanced with references to various examples of English pastoral music, such as my own personal favourite, “A Lark Ascending” by Vaughan Williams.
Ultimately it was given the title “From an English Pastorale – For Nick Drake”; but I only ever saw it as a makeweight. That is, until I decided to expand it into “Leitmotifs from an English Pastorale”.
I can’t even recall why I made the decision to include the leitmotifs or recurring themes, which were of course originally used in music rather than in writing, although ultimately co-opted by literature. But it was a risky one, lest readers think I was inadvertently repeating myself. But then the piece as a whole is pretty “lawless”, which is what the French writer André Gide proposed a novel should be.
Although “Leitmotifs” is hardly a novel; and Gide’s shorter works were far from lawless.
It’s based on fact, and predictably so for anyone who’s in any way familiar with what I optimistically like to call my writings. And while partly original, it’s also rooted in a network of autobiographical pieces I’ve been concocting since 2006; having destroyed most of what I’d written up to that point.
But it’s not a memoir as such, at least, not as I see it, but then in the end, it’s not up to me to say what it is. In fact when all’s said and done, I haven’t the first idea what it is other than something I wrote. But by naming the central figure Runacles, I’m able to distance myself a little from him, so that Runacles is a version of me as opposed to the completed article.
And so we move on to the quartet of essays that complete Book One, “A Quartet of Essays and a Stray Pastorale”.
The first of these, “The Coming of the Absaloms” was fashioned from an early section of “The Gambolling Baby Boomer”, first chapter of my memoir “Rescue of a Rock and Roll Child”. Or should I say memoirs…for it exists as two versions, one being a direct memoir, the other, similarly direct, but with many names changed.
And while “Absalom” has since been enhanced, the similarities still very much remain. While the second was derived from another chapter from “Rescue”, “The Triumph of Decadence”. As to the third, it was based on “The Riddle of the British English”which while still available online has to all intents and purposes been shelved. While the source of the fifth, “From Avant Garde to Global Village”, was “A Final Distant Clarion Cry”, final chapter of the aforesaid “Rescue of a Rock and Roll Child”, more of which later.
Which brings us to Book Two, “Your Lethal Life and Other Versified Leftovers” which as the name suggests consists exclusively of versified writings.
And these begin with “It Wasn’t So Long Ago”, a lyric written in 2003 for a song I roughly recorded onto cassette, some years before it was transferred onto CD. And thence onto You Tube…together with “Toilers of the Sea”, “A Song of Summer”, “Stevie B and Me”, “The Ones We Love”, “Like All the Moonstruck Do”, “I Let You Go” and “Time Was I Was”.
While “Time Travel” was written and recorded in ’99; with “All Through the Ages” emerging perhaps a year later, while never making it onto CD.
As to “Your Beautiful Lethal Life”, it was written only a matter of weeks ago from an earlier lyric I’d based on a collaboration with a close friend, dating from about twenty years ago…when my own life was both beautiful and lethal.
“Wicked Cahoots” and “The Woodville Hall Soul Boys” stem from stories written in the late 1970s, while they first saw the light of day in versified form in 2006, before going on to form part of the memoir which came ultimately to be titled “Rescue of a Rock and Roll Child”.
While “Thoughts of a Forlorn Flâneur”, a relatively new work in its present form, is based partly on a story written in about 1987 and subsequently destroyed, and partly on material written specifically for what became “Rescue”.
“Spark of Youth Long Gone”, “Some Perverse Will” and “London as the Lieu” all also date from the ‘80s. Indeed “London” first existed in prose form as part of the same story that inspired parts of “Flâneur”. While “Spark” pertained to a different tale entirely, and “Some Perverse Will” existed in versified form from the outset. Although it’s since undergone some modification, like so much of what has ended up being included in “Where the Halling Valley River Lies”.
Shifting to “Seven Chapters from a Sad Sack Loser’s Life”, its origins also lie in the “Rescue”. For out of the latter came two kindred pieces centring on one David Cristiansen, namely, “The Tormenting”, which is told in the third person with many names changed, and “The Testimony”, which is even more bowlderised than its sister piece, if that’s at all possible.
And “Sad Sack” is effectively “The Tormenting”, with elements of “The Testimony” added to it. Such as several autobiographical narratives which, deemed ineffectual as shorts, were shelved along with both longer works. While “Rescue” was relegated to what might be called a second team of writings.
Which is where Book Four once existed…that is, until it was recently upgraded and completed. But its evolution was even more labyrinthine than that of “Sad Sack”.
What is certain is that it first emerged in the wake of “Rescue” as a second memoir, only to vanish from the writing site I’d initially used to store it…having failed to benefit from the safety net of a back-up copy.
And as a result, I was forced to re-write it; and it emerged in embryonic form as a vast diversity of writings. And some or all of these are still available to read online. Yet, it was ultimately fine-tuned in order that it focus on my father, Patrick Halling, as well as the successive musical and cultural climates in which his career took place. And tendered the name “Where the Halling Valley River Lies”.
While many, perhaps most of the elements pertaining to myself would be destined to end up in “Sad Sack”.
Which brings us to “Beachcombings from the Halling Valley River”, of which this finale is an integral part, together with versified pieces not considered of sufficiently high quality to be included in “Lethal Life”, such as the opener, “Bouzingo – The Gathering of the Poets”, whose origins lie in an unfinished tale, possibly dating from around 1979.
And which centres on a club situated in an imaginary small town in Southern Spain, in which fashionable young men and women are wont to nightly congregate as a means of fulfilling their wildest romantic fantasies. Is in other words, entirely fantastical, unlike most of my writings.
While “Call the FBI”, “Some Romantic Afternoon”, “For More than a Million Dreams”, “Melancholy Girl” and “My Travels” were all originally song lyrics dating from 2003.
So, where precisely do “Some Sun Drunk Day He Said”, “Gallant Festivities” and “The Wanderer of Golders Green” fit in?
Well…”Sun Drunk” has the dubious honour of being the only slice of juvenilia contained within the entire book, having been conceived as some kind of poem in about 1976. And as such, it provides a certain insight into the psychological condition of the dandified figure from chapter two of “Seven Chapters from a Sad Sack Loser’s Life”.
While “Gallant Festivities” and “The Wanderer of Golders Green” were versified for inclusion in what ultimately became the “Rescue”, having been based on notes made in the early 1980s. While like all my autobiographical writings with the exception of the title piece, personal names were changed for the sake of privacy, while it was no less motivated by a spirit of truth and integrity to the best of my ability.
And this short coda finishes things off quite neatly. But that’s not to say
“Where the Halling Valley River Lies” has attained its definitive state, because by its very nature, it can be added to ad infinitum. So that it remain perpetually fluid and perpetually inchoate. And in perpetual evolution.

Cover Image: River Thames (Photo by Carl Halling).


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Publication Date: 08-14-2011

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